Integrators, Are You Recognized As An Expert?

John Honovich

There was a very interesting discussion from today's sales course on 'Selling to the Informed Customer' that brought up a critical distinction about being an expert versus being recognized as one.

The underlying premise is that as integrators today it is hard to win leading with 'your' manufacturer, because it is so easy for end users to get information on products and alternate sources for them. Many end users then see integrators as commodities to install the 'stuff' at the lowest cost.

Being a (recognized) expert can help overcome this.

Ideally you want both - be a real expert and be recognized as one. However, just being a real expert is not enough because if prospects do not know you are an expert, then they will treat you as just another commodity camera mounter.

So, integrators, do you think you are recognized as an expert in your local market by end users who do not currently buy from you?

Bonus: 2/3rds of the sales attendees do not send any email newsletter, which is clearly a big miss opportunity to keep yourself front of mind and positioning yourself as an expert.

As for us, IPVM started with the spider as it was a programming experiment for me. I then added posts and it organically expanded over time. However, IPVM was never part of an integrator or manufacturer.

Become a recognized subject matter expert; then create cutting-edge subscription based software products, (calculator, finder, etc), which benefit from the official endorsement and implicit goodwill of the site as a whole.

John Honovich

We have some level of branding / recognition and certainly a lot of that has to do with the newsletter and reaching out to industry people with news / information / etc. That does help because a lot of people (probably most) sign up without ever interacting with any of us in any way.

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Ross Vanderklok

As an end user I would be remiss if I did not throw my two cents in here. Integrators, just because you think you are an expert and present yourself as such, does not make you an expert. Over the years I have sat down with many a purported “expert” that were far from it. Not that I am an expert by any stretch, I know just enough to be dangerous! All I am saying is if you do not know your stuff be careful.

Also, the newsletter is a great idea whether you are an expert or not. I get numerous newsletters and sometimes there is nothing of interest in them, but at least it gets the company name in front of my face. I may have forgotten all about you, or the sales guy from your company I talked to a month ago so whenever the newsletter comes in it is a reminder you are still out there.

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